14 Facts About George Markstein

George Markstein was a British journalist and writer of thrillers and teleplays.

George Markstein was the script editor of the British series The Prisoner for the first thirteen episodes, and appeared briefly in its title sequence.

In 1926, according to his friend Sidney Allinson, writing in "George Markstein and The Prisoner", Markstein was born in Berlin, Germany, but emigrated with his Jewish family to England with the rise of Nazism.

George Markstein worked as a newspaper reporter for the Southport Guardian of Southport England in 1947.

George Markstein later became a journalist for the American military tabloid, the Overseas Weekly.

George Markstein moved into television, first on the factual series This Week, before acting as story consultant and contributing to multiple episodes of ITC's Court Martial, and then joining Danger Man as story consultant for the last black-and-white episode, then story editor for the two episodes which were made in colour.

When Patrick McGoohan announced his decision to leave Danger Man, George Markstein edited the basic ideas that McGoohan had worked on since 1962 that became The Prisoner series,.

Together with producer David Tomblin and the star McGoohan, George Markstein co-wrote the first story "Arrival," and then settled in as script editor for the series.

George Markstein later described the job of story editor as "the key man in any series, he is the man in whose hands is the ethos of the series, the spirit of the series, and it is his job to cast the writers and the authors the way a director casts the actors and the stars".

However, since McGoohan controlled the series as Executive Producer and owner of Everyman Films, George Markstein became increasingly dissatisfied as an employee and ultimately left the series after the conclusion of the initial block of thirteen episodes.

George Markstein acted as producer for the first series of Man at the Top, a continuation of the story begun with John Braine's 1957 Room at the Top.

George Markstein became Thames's Head of Script Development, where he had input into the development of the 1974 Armchair Cinema season made by Thames's film subsidiary Euston Films, including one-off drama Regan and its celebrated successor series The Sweeney.

George Markstein again went freelance, and co-wrote the screenplay for The Odessa File, based on the novel by Frederick Forsyth.

George Markstein continued to write for television, including working on two series of Shades of Greene for Thames, a series of adaptations of short stories by Graham Greene, for which Markstein acted as script consultant jointly with Greene's brother, former director-general of the BBC, Sir Hugh Greene.